On Face the Nation today, host John Dickerson asked Louisiana Gov. Piyush "Bobby" Jindal about the possibility of the Westboro Baptist Church disrupting funeral services tomorrow for victims of the mass shooting last Thursday at the Lafayette, Louisiana theater.

DICKERSON:
"Let me ask you a last question about that funeral service tomorrow.
The Westboro Baptist Church, which has disrupted other funerals in the past, is threatening to do so again.
What can you do to keep them away?"

When Mitt Romney was considering who might be his 2012 running mate, each prospect was given a fish-themed code name.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, known as a tireless self-promoter with a bloated ego, was dubbed "Puffer Fish."

The Romneyites determined that the prima donna Christie was wholly unqualified to be vice president, but the rejection didn't deflate Chris' puffed-up self-esteem one dot.
Indeed, the bragging and blustering Jersey guy has convinced at least himself that he's the
can-do, big-idea, forceful leader America needs, so he is now offering to be our president.

Before accepting, however, you might to check with one group of voters who're less than enchanted: The people of New Jersey.
With a moribund economy, a state budget mess, a growing pension crisis, his state's infrastructure crumbling, and his own office caught in a web of scandals, Christie is not faring well with the home-folk, earning only a 30 percent approval rating, with most voters saying they dislike "everything about him."

Meanwhile, Christie is way back in the pack, getting under 3% of Republican primary voters.
But he has found one friend -- Maine Gov. Paul LePage has enthusiastically endorsed him!
Problem is, LePage is even more insufferable and insolent than Christie, so arrogant and autocratic that he's even alienated fellow Republicans in Maine and is now threatened with impeachment.

Still, if anything, Puffer Fish's ego is puffier than ever.
Asked by Fox News why 65 percent of New Jersey voters say he'd make a poor president and shouldn't run, the vain-glorious governor actually said: "They want me to stay. Don;t leave to run for president, because we want you to stay."

It's one thing for a politician to say something so ridiculous, but - far scarier - Christie is so out of touch with reality that he believes it.

(Note to Good Reads Forum Moderator: The following is NOT a "conspiracy theory")

Here are some FACTS relating to how Scott Walker became governor, and how he survived the recall attempt in 2012.

FACT:
Forty-six Wisconsin counties and 3,000 voting machines are being controlled by a two-person company run out of a strip mall in Minnesota.
"Meet Command Central: The People In Charge of Wisconsin Voting machines"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002773448

FACT:
Wisconsin Paper Ballot Scanners Failed To Count 1,000s Of Votes In "Citizens United" Ballot Referendum (By Brad Friedman, 11/9/2014)
"Though some 5,350 voters are known to have voted in the city of Stoughton in Dane County, Wisconsin on Tuesday, just 16 of those voters were interested in voting in a local ballot referendum calling for an amendment in the U.S. Constitution to help overturn the infamous Citizens United decision - at least according to the results reported by paper ballot optical-scan computer tabulators there.
A malfunction with the voting machines in Stoughton Tuesday led to an incomplete outcome of the city's referendum on whether to amend the U.S. Constitution, Stoughton clerk Lana Kropf said," according to a terse and somewhat cryptic report in the Wisconsin State Journal on Thursday.
Google:"Voter Fraud vs Election Theft: Scott Walker's Wisconsin Reelection"
(I was unable to post a link to this excellent article)

FACT:
Walker Wins (Again) Democracy Loses (Again, Big Time): BradCast 7/16/2105
Guest:Brendan Fischer of Center for Media and Democracy..
by Brad Friedman, 7/16. 2015
"I had to ask my guest on today's BradCast whether I was being overly dramatic in seeing today's stunning news from the Wisconsin Supreme Court as 'the death of democracy.'
He did not warn me off that thinking."
(Brad Friedman goes on)
"Then it's onto the jaw-dropping Wisconsin Supreme Court verdict in the challenge to the prosecutorial investigation into blatant collusion between Gov. Scott Walker and a number of Right-wing groups which spent millions in an alleged 'criminal scheme' to help Walker win his 2012 recall election."
http://www.bradblog.com(3rd story down on main page)

Pluto looks especially welcoming in a new photo by NASA's approaching New Horizons probe.

The image, which New Horizons took July 7 when it was less than 5 million miles from Pluto, shows a large heart-shaped feature on the dwarf planet's surface.

The bright "heart" is about 1,200 miles wide, NASA officials said.
To it's left lies an 1,860 mile long dark patch along Pluto's equator, that mission scientists are calling "the whale."

New Horizons should get much better looks at both of these intriguing features in the coming days - especially during it's July 14 flyby, when the probe will zoom within 7,800 miles of Pluto's surface.

A FEDERAL COURT JUST THREATENED CITIZENS UNITED
Yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington ruled 11-0 that a ban of federal campaign contributions by individuals who contract with the government is constitutional.
After a wave of controversial decisions by the Supreme Court that have unleashed a flood of big money into politics, this appeals court decision sends a clear message: Sometimes more money in politics can be a very bad thing.
Americans agree.
According to a poll from the New York Times, some 85 percent of the American people believe that the way political campaigns are funded needs either "fundamental changes" (39 percent) or "a complete rebuild." (46 percent)
Link to complete article:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026951789

Contained in the above referenced article from TalkingPointsMemo,
(July 8, 2015, by David Schultz)
is the following:

"So can anything be done?
Actually yes....All is not lost..And yesterday's court decision is a step in the right direction.
America need not wait for Congress or the Supreme Court to come around.
The President and various federal agencies have the power to make several small but important reforms.
Here are four:
1) The President could issue an executive order to require federal contractors to disclose all political contributions they make and to bar contractors from bidding on federal contracts for two years if they spend too much to influence a federal race or a member of Congress.
Yesterday's ruling upholds a ban on "pay to play" contributions to prevent conflicts of interest or undue influence.....A new order could be built on that ruling.
2) The Securities and Exchange Commission could make a rule requiring publicly traded companies to disclose all expenditures of money for political purposes and to obtain shareholder assent to use money for these purposes.
3) To reduce candidates' need for costly commercials, the Federal Communications Commission could require broadcasters to provide reasonable free air time to all House, Senate and Presidential candidates....The public owns the airwaves, so there is nothing to stop the FCC from doing this.
4) The IRS could require that non-profits whose major purpose is political advocacy register with the Federal Elections Commission and disclose their donors and expenditures."

From NYT article:
"With the stroke of his pen he will probably commute more sentences at one time than any president has in nearly half a century."

I'm not opposed to the President's plan to free non violent drug offenders.
The nation's prisons are filled with non violent drug offenders, and, oftentimes, VIOLENT offenders are released early to make room for the large numbers of incoming non violent drug offenders.

Since President Obama is planing a "Broader Use of Clemency For Non Violent Drug Offenders",
I hope he is also planning to use his "Broader Use of Clemency" to free the non violent former governor of Arkansas..Don Siegelman, who, unlike even the "non violent drug offenders"..
COMMITTED NO CRIME AT ALL.

Come on, Mr. President, do the right thing, use your "broader use of clemency" to free an innocent man who was railroaded by Karl Rove, a corrupt judge, and a corrupt US Attorney, (Laura Canary)
http://www.freedonsiegelman.org/

Now that Chris Christie is officially running for president, his record as governor of New Jersey will be getting a lot more scrutiny.
As we reported with the Washington Post in April, there's plenty to look at.

Our reporting focused on Republican Christie's fiscal record, an area where he's claimed some of his biggest achievements -- and committed some of the "Budget Sins" he attacked his predecessors for.

Kicking off his campaign today, Christie used familiar rhetoric to champion his record in New jersey.
"We rolled up our sleeves and we went to work and we balanced six budgets in a row," he said.
"We've refused to raise taxes on the people of this state for six years."

But as our earlier reporting showed, Christie's fiscal record doesn't always line up with his campaign's "Telling It Like It Is" tagline.
Take public employee pensions, a chronic problem in New Jersey.

When Christie signed his sixth budget on Friday, he reiterated his claim that his contributions to the state's pensions have far outpaced those of his predecessors.
As we pointed out in April, that's only true if you exclude a $2.75 billion pension contribution by former Republican Gov. Christine Todd Whitman.

Christie doesn't count Whitman's payment because it was made with borrowed money, allowing him to assert that pension contributions under his administration are "more than twice as much as any other governor in New Jersey history."

Some movie critics think that "Field Of Dreams" is the best baseball movie ever.
Others cite "Bull Durham", "Major League", "A League of Their Own", "The Sandlot",
"The Bad News Bears", or the 1942 classic "The Pride of the Yankees"

I haven't seen "42", the film about Jackie Robinson, but I hear it's pretty good.
Harrison Ford plays Branch Rickey and Chadwick Boseman plays Jackie Robinson

Of the ones I've seen, I like "61" and "Moneyball" the best.

In "61",(which was directed by Billy Crystal), Barry Pepper was outstanding as Roger Maris,
as was Thomas Jane as Mickey Mantle.
Anthony Michael Hall was very good as Whitey Ford